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Dingoo A320 review - Contains big pics (sorry)

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    Dingoo A320 review - Contains big pics (sorry)

    Right well not strictly software but thought this might deserve it's own first play thread anyway as I know some people were interested when it cropped up in my Handheld Emulator thread a while back so without further ado I begin with some piccies...

    The unit on charge



    Piccies of the box & accessories







    It did have a little charge when I cracked it out the box & I fired it up very quickly & played about with changing the language to English & had a quick browse of the settings.
    It comes pre-installed with GBA & Neo Geo Emulators.
    The lay out is exactly the same as a PSP menu.
    It's quite weighty & has a very sturdy feel, buttons are nice & tight & well laid out.
    Screen is nice & bright & very clear...doesnt seem too small which is something I was worried about, will be interested to see how it fares on games like Axelay though when a bigger screen would make it easier to see the bullets etc.

    Only downside I've found so far is it takes Mini SD cards which I dont have any of
    I thought the Mini bit was maybe a mis-print & it meant Micro SD but alas no so I have to go buy a Mini SD adaptor now for my 4GB Micro card

    So far I've only played around with a few games...

    Played a bit of Batman Returns & Axelay on the SNES Emu.
    Both seem to run full speed & look amazing on the little screen.
    Crystal clear & easy to see, no noticable blur either on the fast moving sections
    I still get my **** handed to me on a plate in Axelay...been so long since I played it last time.

    Also tried some Robocop on the NES emu.
    Perfect as the original, plays just as well & runs full speed from what I can see as well.

    Got some MD games running at the moment & I was pleased with how well Gynoug run but not so impressed with Rocket Knight.

    Gynoug was perfect & as good as I remembered Rocket Knight on the other hand suffered really badly from blurring & artifacts, it also seemed to frame skip a bit in places as well so might have to see how it fares with a few more later like the Thunderforce series, Sensible Soccer & Eternal Champions.

    I've also played about with the CPS2 & MVS Emulation & thats pretty good.
    Tried AvP on CPS2 & Eightman/Pulstar on MVS
    AvP seemed to run fine but it's been so long since I last played it that I cant remember how fast it was.

    Eightman again run perfectly fine however my version of pulstar is corrupt & the graphics werent working so will try with another version later.
    I've got Kof'98, '02 & Metal Slugs lined up to tinker with over the weekend so will see how they fare on the ickle beasty.

    Finally to give the video a workout I tried an episode of the Gaiking: Legend of Daiku Maryu Anime on it & it was perfect playback.
    No noticable blurring, subs were easy to read & colours were nice bright & vibrant

    I have noticed though that the sound on some SNES games is slightly off.
    SFX sound ok but the music is deffinitley not what I remember on things like Batman Returns & Donkey Kong Country
    Still I dont have the sound up anyway so it's not a huge problem for me but I know for some of you it will be a massive issue & may well affect whether this is a machine for you or not.

    Not sure how important it might be to some of you but I tried the FLAC audio function as well & I have to admit I was really impressed.
    Crystal clear & much better than MP3 encoding...never tried it before but I know it will now be my Audio Codec of choice.
    If you only buy it for that feature I dont think you'll be let down.

    TV-Out is good...not great but bearable.
    Games all run full screen & same speed as on the Dingoo itself.
    Video playback is fine if a little grainy.
    I did notice though that it stops to buffer the video files regularly which I think will get annoying during long films, Anime episodes isnt so bad but 2hr movies I reckon it will get to be a right royal pain.

    Something important though that you should all know...Frameskip is auto enabled for all emulators, turning it off makes them all VERY slow & clunky I dont recommend turning it off at all.
    You can set a number of frames to be skipped though so you can lessen the effect & in esscence slow the emulator down if your finding games run too fast.

    In essence it's a good system does everything I expected & for the price I cant complain.

    There is a growing community for it (Including it's own forum) & I'm hopeful for some ports of other Emu's like PC Engine, MAME & Amiga in the future...how well it will handle MAME will remain to be seen but I'm not holding out much hope to be honest.

    You may notice I have neglected to menton any of Dingoo's own software like 7 Days, Drift Racer etc. but thats because I havent started on them yet...I've been too busy reliving old classics & generally just getting to grips with the thing lol
    I will however get these played with over the weekend & start a first play thread for each if I feel they warrant it...if not I'll just pop my findings in here for you all.

    Like I said as a ?60 Media/Audio player it's downright perfect as a games machine...well it's good for it's price point but only time will tell wether it continues to live upto the expectations of the more discerning retro gamer but for me...I'm more than happy with it & glad I took the plunge.

    Neil

    #2
    Thanks for those impressions.

    Emulation has to be perfect for me, so I think at £60 it's going to be worth it for an almost perfect SNES emulator. If it pulls off CPSII and MVS stuff better than the PSP then that's a bonus.

    Shame about the DKC music.

    I think I'll get one next month. Even if things aren't so perfect at least I'm throwing money in a direction that will go towards making a more perfect product next time, that's the way I look at stuff.

    Comment


      #3
      No worries David, glad to help.

      If your happy to make do with frameskip then in my humble opinion the SNES/MD Emu's are perfect apart from the sound issues I mentioned.

      CPS2/MVS emulation is very hit & miss at the moment, the software needs to be encoded using some Japanese programme & unfortunatley it's a bit of trial & error to see what works & what doesnt.
      Currently I've managed to get a few working but I'm hopeful that as the userbase grows & more coders come on board all the early teething problems will be sorted & we'll see much better Emulation later on.

      Will be trying out the exclusive Dingoo games today & tomorrow to see what they play like & will give you some impressions on them soon too.

      Neil

      Comment


        #4
        Wow. I'd never heard of this previously, so a big thanks to you, Soundwave.

        If the CPS2 and NeoGeo emulation get nailed down running well, then I'll be definately getting one. The console looks sweet. Does it have shoulder buttons?

        Comment


          #5
          Man, that looks sweet! I am so getting one when I go Hong Kong in a coupla months time!

          Dont suppose you've had a chance to try out any RMVB files on it?

          Comment


            #6
            Originally posted by hoolak View Post
            Wow. I'd never heard of this previously, so a big thanks to you, Soundwave.

            If the CPS2 and NeoGeo emulation get nailed down running well, then I'll be definately getting one. The console looks sweet. Does it have shoulder buttons?
            No problem at all Hoolak, glad to help

            It does indeed have shoulder buttons, they are quite small but sit in well with the design & are pretty robust by the feel of things.

            Originally posted by neoboy259 View Post
            Man, that looks sweet! I am so getting one when I go Hong Kong in a coupla months time!

            Dont suppose you've had a chance to try out any RMVB files on it?
            I've not tried an RMVB file on it...didnt even know they existed till you just mentioned it
            Quick google & I now know what it is lol
            Will try to one out tomorrow if I can.

            Here's some more pics for you all as well...

            Operating menu & games list:




            CPS2 & MVS Emulation...










            Shame I cant get all the CPS2 & MVS stuff working...hopefully soon it'll all be fine & running nicely.

            Neil

            Comment


              #7
              Was gonna buy one from dealextreme to replace my gba micro.

              I'll wait a bit though.

              It's a lovely machine. Can't believe so many cool handhelds have been coming out lately.

              I highly doubt it'll surpass the psp in terms of emulation, but man, who cares. The screens the right res, the buttons are all there, its tiny, and its got a nice interface.

              Right now, I use ds, psp and micro. Can picture me adding this to the roster when I know more about its capabilities

              Comment


                #8
                Neil, how does the screen on this compare to say, the PSP or DS? Reason I ask is that I cant play on my PSP for long without feeling ill. Cheers matey!

                Comment


                  #9
                  Originally posted by neoboy259 View Post
                  Neil, how does the screen on this compare to say, the PSP or DS? Reason I ask is that I cant play on my PSP for long without feeling ill. Cheers matey!
                  I'd say the Screen is easily as good as the DS screen.
                  Nice & clear & doesnt suffer too much from burring.

                  Cant really compare it to the PSP I'm afraid though as I dont have one to check against.

                  Thats not good about feeling ill with the PSP, do you know why it happens??

                  Neil

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Originally posted by Soundwave View Post
                    I'd say the Screen is easily as good as the DS screen.
                    Nice & clear & doesnt suffer too much from burring.

                    Cant really compare it to the PSP I'm afraid though as I dont have one to check against.

                    Thats not good about feeling ill with the PSP, do you know why it happens??

                    Neil
                    The screen blur makes me feel nauseous, shame really.

                    Oh, what is the d-pad like on this? Its ok for prolonged use? And how is the GBA emulation? Little bit norty that they've included that feature in heh.

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Sorry to hear about the sickening feeling from the blurring that does suck...I know how you feel though I get motion sickness playing the Wii which isnt nice at all

                      D-Pad is ok...not spectacular but more than servicable.
                      Dragon Punches & Fireballs arent the easiest things to do with it but for side scrolling beat-em-ups & platformers it's fine.
                      Did struggle a bit as well with diagonals on Contra/Cybernator but not too bad really.

                      GBA Emulation was a bit naughty wasnt it??
                      Still it seems ok but I havent really played about with it too much as I'm quite happy with playing what I want on my DS Lite...what I have tried though seemed fine.

                      Neil

                      Comment


                        #12
                        With the Wiz and Pandora on the way, isn't this a little pointless? I guess it trumps the GP2X (which is getting on a bit now anyway) but I wouldn't drop £60 on something that doesn't emulate SNES games properly. Although the Wiz and Pandora will both cost more (the Wiz about double and the Pandora £200) they're far more powerful than this.

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Originally posted by Duddyroar View Post
                          With the Wiz and Pandora on the way, isn't this a little pointless? I guess it trumps the GP2X (which is getting on a bit now anyway) but I wouldn't drop £60 on something that doesn't emulate SNES games properly. Although the Wiz and Pandora will both cost more (the Wiz about double and the Pandora £200) they're far more powerful than this.

                          Over on GP2X.com they have tested the Wiz and it isn't that much better that the F200. It isn't dual core (So many GP2X emus are not optimised correctly for it) and it has a severe memory bandwidth issue.

                          So a F200 overclocked beats the Wiz apparently.

                          I really want a wiz, so I hope the coders can work around these issues.

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Oh dear, poor old Gamepark. First the 'twin d-pad' debacle and now this. The Wiz is basically a lost cause, then.

                            Personally I'm putting all my eggs in the basket marked 'Pandora'.

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Duddy,

                              The reason I went for one really was the portable nature of it.

                              I stayed away from the Wiz because of the silly double D-pad thing & price
                              Pandora to me just doesnt seem that portable.

                              I have a laptop so can use that for Emualtion when I'm sat at home at the table which is what I assume you have to do with the Pandora I cant see that being very playable on the bus/train I could also see me getting serious handcramp trying to play it.

                              Still I am keeping a close eye on the Pandora & maybe when they eventually arrive & are cheaper than an X-box 360 or 2nd hand PS3 then I'll consider one...I mean £200 is a bit steep isnt it??

                              Dont get me wrong it does look mighty impressive though with all the potential Emulation.

                              Neil

                              Comment

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